Snowshoes are designed to provide a user with floatation when walking on the snow. Snowshoes generally have an outer frame made from wood, metal or plastic that supports an interior decking. A binding enables the user's footwear to be secured to the snowshoe. The frame and decking provide displacement of the user's body weight over a surface area that is greater than that provided by conventional footwear, thereby enabling floatation of the snowshoe across the surface of the snow.
Snowshoe frame and decking designs have not changed much in recent years. Since the design criteria must satisfy the objective of weight distribution, all snowshoe designs tend to have the same general size, shape and weight. Recent approaches in snowshoe design depart from the more traditional ones by molding the frame and decking of plastic into an integrated unit. This approach tends to reduce the cost of manufacturing the snowshoes and also provides a continuous surface area to which traction enhancing devices, such as cleats, can be permanently attached.
Bindings are also an important part of snowshoe design. There are as many different approaches to binding design as there are different snowshoe designs. Comfort, ease of use, control and durability describe the best bindings of the art. Many designs employ an ice crampon under the center of the binding that pivots downward as the user steps forward to aid with traction. For example, Klebahn et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,630 describes a binding mounted crampon. In addition to the crampon, a metal cleat is screwed or riveted to the decking material below the user's heel to permanently mount the cleat to the snowshoe.